Engineering bill questioned

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

By DAVID WARGO TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com

The Mahoning Township engineering firm's bill for services with regard to the Community Development Block Grant project work was pulled from the bill list by a 4 to 0 vote of the supervisors at last evening's meeting after Supervisor Bruce Steigerwalt questioned an amount which he said was almost $600 dollars more than they allocated in their budget.

"Back on February 7th, John [Wieczorek, Chairperson, ] emailed T&M Associates and asked for a price for the project and was told it would be $3,000 now we have a bill for $3587 and there are still services to be performed," Steigerwalt said.

He held up a paper that was the budget provided by T&M and pointed out the $3,000 line item to emphasize his point and said the bill in question was described as preliminary plans and specifications. He read a list of several other services that were to be included in the $3,000 item but have not yet been completed since the project has not started yet.

"This is the second time this has happened," said Supervisor Frank Ruch. Steigerwalt said he would like an explanation for the overage.

Supervisor Linda Benner said she thought the $3,000 was an estimate, but Steigerwalt disagreed saying the paper he held was the budget they created and that it was not just an approximate figure. "Why do we ask for a price from them if we can't get them to honor it?"

Wieczorek said he didn't have an answer to the question, but the board would request an explanation about the charges. He amended his motion to approve the bills to exclude the $3587 bill until the next meeting so they could get more information. The motion carried 4-0 with Supervisor Todd Weaver absent.